After retiring to St George, my wife and I began volunteering at bike events. The Senior Games, Intermountain Cup and Ironman St. George.

Early in 2016 the opportunity to rescue abandoned bikes came up and it has turned into Bicycle Collective St. George where we can enable all ages to learn and maintain all types of bicycles. 

My reward is seeing young and old enjoy riding and learning about all the opportunities biking represents.

Jim spent his career building brands, customers—and value—for a host of innovative technology companies, both public and private. Jim co-founded Cirque Corporation, inventor of touchpad pointing devices now common on virtually all laptop computers. After selling Cirque to Alps Corporation in 2003, Jim founded the NorAm division of EnOcean, a Siemens spinout employing energy-harvesting to self-power wireless sensor solutions for use in building automation, industrial applications, and environmental monitoring. Since retiring in 2016, Jim consults part-time with companies in the energy harvesting and wireless sensor markets.  

Jim began volunteering at the Bicycle Collective in 2017, became a core volunteer and joined the board of directors in November 2018. Jim has been a lifelong cyclist, former racer, and now an avid mountain biker.  Having seen the personal and community benefits of cycling, Jim joined the Collective to extend that opportunity to all members of the community regardless of economic resources. Jim and his wife are avid skiers, cyclists and travel enthusiasts.  

When the school district asked us to participate in Bike to School Week this year, we went all in. Provo Bicycle Collective originally promised 75 bikes to local elementary schools, but the requests kept coming after that, until we reached 90 bikes. 

Why did we promise this? Because every kid deserves a bike. Most of us remember our first bike as a child because it gave us freedom; freedom to explore at the speed of discovery. Every child deserves this feeling.

This week, most of those bikes were given out to children who didn't already own a bike. To say they were thrilled is an understatement. I'll let this photo do the talking from here.

If you've ever volunteered with us, know that you played a huge part in this. All giveaway bikes are refurbished by volunteers like you. We can't thank you enough! See more photos of these kids here and don't forget to share!

If you'd like to ensure all kids get a bike, regardless of family income, donate today! Just $50 gives a bike to a kid in need!

Matt Jacobs, Kira Johnson and Austin Taylor of Provo Bicycle Collective were featured on BYU Radio's Constant Wonder. Listen to us explain how PBC empowers people to fix things, gives bikes to those in need and creates community at the same time.

Listen now!

Here are some money quotes:

“The streets are a public space and there is nowhere else where you can see people so close physically that are so different economically. The bicycle is a way of joining people together and building community. That’s a slogan of the Bicycle Collective; recycling bicycles, building community. That’s what we hope to do, is build community through bicycles.” - Austin, PBC Director

“The speed of discovery…that feeling you get from cruising around on a bike; noticing things that you wouldn’t otherwise.” 

“There’s a drive to give back and help out in our community. The people with real needs are not always visible. By having nonprofits that care for them, that are invested in them, we can help them out. Together, we can fulfill this higher purpose.” - Matt, Volunteer and Programs Coordinator

Women’s night “makes me feel this desire to do more hands-on. If some kind of manual labor needs to be done, I’m not going to do that a man will do it, and I will do it instead.” - Kira, Women’s Night Manager

“Women can do great things. Women have the tendency to look at details, and when they get things done…it’s done with more care.” - Alexis, PBC volunteer

"If you see that norse god (Kai Cox) down there at the shop, tell him hi for me." - Marcus

*On hold until more youth are able to be vaccinated.*

Youth Open Shop is an afterschool program designed to teach bicycle mechanics to youth ages 8-18. Youth Open Shop hours are set aside only for youth so they have a place to learn among their peers. Youth can expect the same do-it-yourself experience as our normal Open Shop users have; staff will provide guidance but not do repairs for them.

During Youth Open Shop, youth are allowed to:

1. Work on their own bike
2. Work on bikes for giveaway
3. Earn a bike for themselves by first working on bikes for giveaway

Please note:

• While the shop time fee is waived, youth are still responsible to pay for all new parts they use or earn used parts by volunteering
• PBC will not store your child's projects
• Work stands are first-come-first-served and PBC shop staff have the right to turn youth away if the shop is too full
• PBC staff will not tolerate misbehavior and reserve the right to ban youth from Youth Open Shop
• Youth are responsible for repairing their own bicycles; PBC staff will not repair bikes for them
• Parents are welcome to wait in the shop but are not allowed to work on bikes with thier children.

We carry diverse, ever-changing selection of fully-refurbished used bikes. Our favorite bikes are "commutified"--reliable bikes from the 80s and 90s that we convert to comfy everyday bikes--but our shelves are often stocked with everything from feather-light road bikes to full-suspension mountain bikes. Because everything we carry is donated to us, we never really know what’s going to be on the shelf from week to week.

Come to our shop or call us today to find out what's in store!